Back to Edinburgh

We made it back Edinburgh but the last two days were the most stressful I think. The bus service from Ullapool to Inverness was great but we got totally soaked on the way to the camping site. Luckily the rain ceased before we pitched our tent.

On the following day we had beautiful sunshine and the train trip to Stirling was fine. But from Sterling to Edinburgh we could not board the train because it did not have enough bicycle space. After an hour wait we made it to the next train but some other bicyclist didn't. The advice is to avoid train connections where you cannot reserve bicycle space.

Now we have a huge amount of photographs and video clips to sort and edit. Best of the photos will go to my flickr page and there is a plan to edit a short video out of the video clips.

Almost done

Yesterday we reached Butt of Lewis. The stunning coastal cliffs and the sandy beach nearby were worth of the sweaty push against the wind. After camping between sand dunes we packed and started our last longer stretch.

In the evening we arrived to the outskirts of Stornoway. The remaining time we will checking local things. The area is quite busy because of Hebridean Celtic Festival. Such a difference to wild camping with nobody in sight.

Black houses and weavers

Today we visited Harris Tweed mill and couple different weavers. Between those two we spent good amount of time exploring the black house village and nearby coastal path.

Tomorrow we have a quite long ride ahead as we try to reach Butt of Lewis. In any case we need to be in Stornoway on Thursday evening as we have a B&B reservation there. Weather looks ok for Tue and Wed but we might get wet on Thu and Fri.

A day of no progress

Since very early morning it has been raining all day. We have rainproof clothing but we decided to stay still and rest. Basically everything is closed on Sundays on Harris and Lewis so we did not miss much. In the matter of fact weather forced us to follow local custom.

Exploring Lewis

We have spent almost half of our time reserved for the trip. The remaining time will be spent visiting various sides of Lewis.

So far we have been quite lucky with the weather and we have managed to pedal over 50km on several days. Harris and Lewis turned out to be much more hilly than Uist or Barra. There have been some long steep uphills and insanely fast downhills.

Mobile data coverage is sparse on the islands and quite often the connection is GPRS or nothing. Couple times we managed to use open wifi.

Next stop Harris

After a windy and rainy day on north Uist we stayed a night in b&b. Previous four nights were fine in our tent but having a chance to dry our gear was welcomed. Today after the ferry crossing we have good amount of biking to do on Harris and Lewis. The area ahead is also much more hilly so the hardest part of the trip is still ahead.

South Uist done

Today we were lucky with weather. Sunny and wind pushing us helped us to cover over 40km. Biking in shorts and t-shirt is much nicer than in rainproofs.